UA coach Rodriguez on state’s recruits: ‘I want all of them to come’

With college football’s National Signing Day in the books, head coaches have now had some time to let things sink in and evaluate their rosters.

University of Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez told Arizona Sports 620’s Doug and Wolf that he’s very pleased with how things went for UA on signing day.

“Our guys identified the right guys early and we had a lot of guys commit early and stayed committed,” he said. “It wasn’t one of these deals where they’re committed and visiting because they’re not truly committed if that happens, they’re just interested.”

RichRod said this year’s incoming class is very talented, adding that he needs this group of recruits to come in and contribute on defense before the team gets to where it needs to be.

“We had to get bigger linebackers, heck I was bigger than all of the linebackers and that’s not saying a whole lot. We signed four good looking big linebackers that are already 225 to 230 lbs. and can continue to grow so we had to get bigger there,” Rodriguez said. “We had to get some big guys up front. And we’ve got to have one more class because you got to have speed, so we got some speed guys too, but we did have a lot of holes to fill defensively.”

Rodriguez said the chance to recruit in Arizona and being so close to California helped boost the talent of this year’s crop.

“On average years there are 12 to 14 BCS-level type of players in Arizona and this year there may be 16 to 18, and we want them all, we don’t want just four or five. We signed five this year; I want all of them to come,” he said. “(California) is a big base for us … We got some guys in Orange County, Inland Empire and San Diego.

“We’re going to be much more entrenched on the West Coast for years to come.”

The Wildcats’ coach also told the show he wants to stick with recruiting mostly at the high school level rather than plucking athletes out of junior college.

“We got two this year, we’re looking to take four (junior college players) at the most,” he said. “I’d like to build a foundation through the high school guys, the guys that come in your program, in your weight room and develop in three to four years into great football players.

“I think if you take a whole lot every year, it’s hard to build a foundation for your program.”